Money managers trim NYMEX natgas short futures-CFTC

NEW YORK Nov 30 (Reuters) - Money managers trimmed their net short natural gas futures positions by about 5,700 contracts in the week ended Nov. 24, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in a report on Monday.

The report, which usually comes out on Friday, was delayed one day due to the U.S. Thanksgiving Day holiday on Thursday.

Money managers, which include commodity trading advisors, pool operators and hedge funds, held 147,502 net short futures, down from 153,241 net shorts the previous week.

Swap dealers increased their net long futures positions by 1,361 lots to 138,922, while the producer/merchant group raised net shorts to 10,712 contracts from 1,919 net shorts in the previous report.

For the week ended Nov. 24, total natural gas futures open interest, or the number of longs or shorts outstanding, fell 42,318 contracts to 707,788.

Traders noted despite their net short futures exposure, funds, or noncommercial traders, were still carrying a sizable net long position in Henry Hub natural gas swaps though they cut the total by 21,447 contracts to 443,180 in this report.

The Henry Hub natural gas swap contract is one-fourth the size of the Henry Hub futures contract, or 2,500 mmBtus, so funds are holding the futures equivalent of about 110,795 net longs. (Reporting by Joe Silha; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) ((joe.silha@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 223 6071; Reuters Messaging; joe.silha.reuters.com@reuters.net))